Kickoff stresses unity, dialogue

Explosions of applause rang out from the Great Hall on Tuesday night as more than 500 potential sorority members were introduced to the University’s nine Panhellenic sororities.

The season of recruitment has begun.

And with the new season comes new recruitment practices for both sororities and fraternities.

Sororities have adopted the Panhellenic-spirited contact agreement, which allows members to talk with women going through the recruitment process.

“It’s not for the purpose of recruiting for your chapter,” said Liz Hancock, Panhellenic vice president of recruitment. “The whole purpose of this resolution is to have natural, normal communication.”

In the past, the sororities followed a policy that prohibited current and potential members from speaking with one another outside formal recruitment events.

“They thought that it would be better not to talk to women going through recruitment so there would be no dirty recruiting going on,” said Jenny Levering, assistant director of fraternity and sorority life. “This year they’ve all decided to come together and promote (the Panhellenic community) as a whole.”

Levering also said the open communication would help eliminate the impression that the Panhellenic sororities are separate entities. Instead, the new agreement will encourage women to speak positively of the entire community.

“This year they’ve all decided to come together and promote Panhellenic as a whole,” she said.

She said that changes to recruitment also will be seen in fraternities but that their process won’t begin until Sept. 11.

“This is one of the first times in several years that recruitment hasn’t started back in the first week of the fall semester,” said Interfraternity Council President Tom Merrihew.

Until this year, fraternity recruitment lasted more than two weeks, a process that was often taxing on new students.

“(The new recruitment schedule) gives men who might be going through the recruitment process the opportunity to focus on different things … and not have to make the decision the first of the school year,” said Larry Shaheen, IFC vice president of recruitment.

He said other policy changes include the creation of a Fraternity Monitoring Group, which will visit all fraternity functions during formal recruitment and document any violations they witness.

“IFC is working hard this year to make sure accountability is the most important factor,” he said.

And representatives said recruiting booklets with important information were distributed to reach more individuals.

Although registration for sororities is closed, it is still possible for men to sign up to participate in recruitment. On Tuesday night, more than 300 men had registered, Shaheen said. Last year, 120 men had registered when fraternity recruitment began.

“This might be one of the largest recruitments we’ve had come through,” he said. He said that after the information session Tuesday night he hopes to see numbers increase even more.

Levering said there has been an increase of people joining Greek organizations in the last five years.

“It’s really becoming a trend on college campuses for people to go Greek,” she said. “The leadership opportunities that the Greeks are beginning to offer on college campuses is something that people are looking for.”

Panhellenic leaders encouraged women to get excited about the upcoming week.

“Recruitment is a tradition at Carolina,” said Panhellenic President Kit MacLean. “ Tradition that leads us to another tradition — one of service, scholarship and friendship.”

 

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.